Desert Island Fonts

Inspired by Andy’s entry, in which Jon, Josh and Greg list the fonts they would hold onto if they only had disk space for six, here are my choices. I’ve been paying a lot more attention to my typography recently, so this was a timely thought on which to ponder… I’m no expert, and can’t go into the detail that the others do, but I offer my opinion nonetheless.

Lucida

The entire family is gorgeous, particularly “Grande”. Easily at home in print and on screen, as body text or a heading. Its versatility is its strong point.

Podium

A font from Identikal, which you can see in action on the Pixel Meadow logo. Great for that “modern, fresh” look. I love the balance of smooth curves and straight lines used in Podium.

Myriad Pro

Greg sums it up best:

“Take Helvetica and throw it in the trash”.

Gaius

My favourite script font. A lot less “twirly” than other script fonts, which makes it all the easier to use. I’ve found myself replacing plain serif headings with Gaius and marvelled at how well it has fit in.

Silkscreen

If you have to have a pixel font, make sure it’s this one. It “just works”, and it works well.

Century Gothic

Not the prettiest, but a very handy font. I use it a lot for headings on websites (like this one). A bit under-rated I feel. If you have a bit of space, Century Gothic can fill it nicely.